A revolutionary study of Spanish-language Filipino literature as the first creative reaction to American imperialism

Isabelo’s Archive reenacts El Folk-Lore Filipino (1889), Isabelo de los Reyes’s eccentric but groundbreaking attempt to build an “archive” of popular knowledge in the Philippines. Inspired by Isabelo’s ghostly project, this collection mixes essays, vignettes, extracts, and notes on Philippine history and culture... Blending the literary and the academic, wondrously diverse in its range, it has many gems to offer the reader.

These essays by Philippine and U.S.-based scholars illustrate the dynamism and complexities of the discursive field of Philippine studies as a critique of vestiges of "universalist" (Western/hegemonic) paradigms; as an affirmation of "traditional" and "emergent" cultural practices; as a site for new readings of "old" texts and "new" popular forms brought into the ambit of serious scholarship; and as a liberative space for new art and literary genres.

This volume makes available selected works by scholars from around the world, using varied historical sources, bringing new perspectives on the Philippine Revolutionary War of 1896.